Your First Chance To See Zach Lee At Dodger Stadium

I like Stephen Fife just fine. I do. Really! He’s turned himself into quite a useful depth starter to have around, the kind of guy you feel fine with throwing six or eight times a year, the kind of guy you never want to rely on, but know you’ll need. But… we know what he can do. We know what he is. And so when I heard that he’d be unable to start tonight due to illness, and that Zach Lee would go instead, I can’t say I was alllll that disappointed.

Angels

Dodgers

7:10pm PT

Los Angeles, CA

RF

Calhoun

LF

Crawford

2B

Kendrick

RF

Puig

1B

Pujols

SS

Ramirez

CF

Hamilton

1B

Gonzalez

3B

Freese

CF

Ethier

DH

Ibanez

3B

Uribe

SS

Aybar

C

Ellis

C

Conger

SS

Gordon

LF

Schuck

P

Lee

Lee is still one of the team’s top prospects, and he hasn’t yet made his MLB debut yet. He hasn’t even pitched in a game at Dodger Stadium tonight, making tonight interesting. Or at least it would be, if anyone cared about the Freeway Series, and wasn’t dying for the season to get started already. (Lee, at least, gets to avoid Mike Trout. Can’t complain about that.)

Lee is backed by what is very clearly the Opening Day lineup, and the fact Dee Gordon is hitting eighth is a very good sign. It’s almost as good a sign as Adrian Gonzalez being back in there, showing that last night’s hit by pitch is nothing to worry about, and to continue the flow of good news, Clayton Kershaw played a game of catch that was termed as “a step forward,” leading to speculation that he’ll start Friday’s home opener, though Don Mattingly wouldn’t comment on that.

Again, the game is on both SNLA and FSW, and again, it’s meaningless spring training baseball. Tomorrow night, this series adjourns south to Anaheim for even more meaningless baseball, before the season finally gets rolling on Sunday night, when the Dodgers and Padres will have the baseball schedule to themselves.

Mike wrote daily for over six long years (2007-13) about the Dodgers at Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness, which was named 2011′s “Best Sports Blog” by LA Weekly. He can currently be found writing multiple times per week at FanGraphs and ESPN, has been a producer and editor for Sports on Earth, and built The Hardball Times. He lives in New York City and will probably be asleep or on vacation when awesome things happen.

@NoHitWin2008@TheReggieHurley he didn't make good contact on #1, #2, and #4. and the double went to the longest part of the field. It is understandable that he didn't think he got enough of any of the homers